'Advance Access' games - why should you pay more?

We talk about changes for GDC 2027 (and the history of the event), why pre-orders and Advance Access for many games seem increasingly to be 'pay to get access early', why some PlayStation 'shovelware'-adjacent publishers are being kicked off (and then re-instated!) on the platform, and discuss Big Walk's success and the future of the 'co-op only' game genre. 

Join Simon Carless & Chris Plante in the latest GameDiscoverCo Show as they look at these questions and more. Mentioned in this episode: 

- GDC has announced its format updates for the March 1st-5th 2027 show, and this r/gamedev post sums up the changes: “Festival hall is moving from Wed-Fri to Tues-Thur… Summits are more community driven… [The return of the] Friday career day… ” (There’s also “a new Business Hall at Moscone West” for focused biz meetings.) - https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/comments/1vnl4td/gdc_2027_announces_changes_to_format_targeting/

- Last week’s big release Mortal Shell II recently hit Advance Access and, thanks to a donated key to SteamDB, we can already see its CCU (23k!) But we also wanted to claim that ‘+$10 to play early and support the dev’ is the real reason people fork out $60 for the ‘Devout Edition.’ (The ‘Obsidian skin set’ ain’t worth $10 - but there’s also nothing wrong with monetizing this kind of early FOMO, is there?) (+ RELATED: Looking at global real-time top sellers on Steam, the top 2 positions are for Call Of Duty Modern Warfare 4 & Wardogs, both prominent shooters doing ‘pre-order for access to the Beta’ promotions.)

- PlayStation kicking off ‘shovelware’ publishers got controversial in targeting Ternox Games & STONKS-9800, since the stock market sim has sold decently on Steam: “Sony unilaterally terminated my PlayStation developer and publisher agreement without giving me any reason.” (Ternox previously put out ‘easy Platinum’-ish games, tho, but Stonks is legit/decent. But.. it’s Sony’s platform to clean up!) - https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/indie-developer-of-popular-stock-market-game-says-sony-is-blocking-a-ps5-release-and-delisting-its-previous-games/ [EDIT: they've been let back on again, as of last Friday!]

- Will Big Walk's 1m+ sales usher in a co-op first era - https://newsletter.gamediscover.co/i/212026664/will-big-walks-1m-usher-in-a-co-op-only-game-era - "I don’t understand why more dev teams haven’t been exploring ‘co-op only’ experiences. The precedent is there: Hazelight Studios has made a career over exclusively co-op titles and has sold tens of millions of units: A Way Out, It Takes Two, and Split Fiction. The curiously under-the-radar We Were Here series, which we’ve profiled before for GDCo, is also a multi-million seller, blending co-op only puzzle & exploration. Even the micro-indie horror series Fears To Fathom made a co-op only iteration, Fears To Fathom: Scratch Creek which has been doing great on Twitch and has sold ~300k copies, according to GDCo estimates."

- Also discussed: last week and this week's new Steam releases, and Chris' surprise question of the week for Simon.